Everyone knows what a watch is used for. But does everyone know how its mechanism works? You may have some general knowledge of how it functions, but could you take it apart, repair it, and then put it back together again? A watchmaker would have no difficulty with this task. Why? He has learned thoroughly and comprehensively how the mechanism of a wristwatch works. This example aptly illustrates the difference between superficial and thorough knowledge in a specified field.
In ancient Greek, the word ‘gnoʹsis’ means cognition and ‘e-piʹgno-sis’ means thorough knowledge. According to an expert in the Greek language, W.E. Vine, the first one means ‘first of all, striving to know, inquiring, investigating’. By contrast, ‘e-piʹgno-sis’, according to another Greek expert, Thayer, is 'solid, reliable knowledge'. The verb form of this word means 'to become thoroughly acquainted with, to know thoroughly, well'. W.E. Vine states that e-piʹgno-sis ‘means thorough or complete knowledge, discernment, cognition’. Furthermore, according to Vine, the term expresses ‘fuller or simply complete knowledge, a closer association of the researcher with an issue so that it has a greater impact on him’.
I dedicate the following signet ring to those who are not satisfied with a mere superficial understanding: The conspiracy theories and propaganda of the system do not fool them. They find satisfactory answers to the most important questions and live according to this knowledge even when storms arise. They do not build on sand; they do not compromise.
